Gaga Chef Restaurant, Shenzhen, China

A large, new restaurant, Gaga Chef, is turning heads in Shenzhen, China.

Not only is the interior elegantly understated, the Gaga (Shenzhen GAGA Catering Management Co.Ltd) brand’s latest concept also involves a rotating cast of international chefs and visual artists.

Gaga Chef was designed by Coordination Asia,the Shanghai-based design and architecture firm that has completed several other restaurant concepts for the Gaga brand.

The new eatery is located in the new MIXC Shenzhen Shopping Center, where high-end brands vie for the attention of affluent shoppers and diners. The brands that have stores in the center include Prada, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany’s and so on plus Gucci’s and Prada’s largest stores in the Asia-Pacific.

The 490 square-meter (5,275 sq.ft) restaurant has seats for 150 guest inside and 42 on the outdoor terrace.

Coordination Asia’s founder and design director, architect Tilman Thürmer, created the concept with key team members Vega li and Yu Yin

According to Thürmer, Gaga is an owner-managed cafe/eatery brand, established in 2013. He says that Gaga is Shenzhen’s most successful eatery for fusion cuisine with 12 restaurants so far.

Coordination Asia has designed each concept and won awards for several, including a Red Dot for the Wongtee Plaza in Shenzhen. Gaga has up to now remained in Shenzhen with its various concepts but is now expanding to Shanghai, Thürmer says.

Gaga Chef is, however, completely different from the other Gaga concepts. Our favourite aspects of Gaga Chef are the cool large-scale lighting installations – all created by Coordination Asia, as well as the lovely collection of seating.

The chairs all have a similar, slender-legged, light profile yet they come from three European design houses. They include Strike by Arrmet, Cyborg Club by Magis and the Beetle Dining Chair by the Danish Gubi.

Coordination Asia is currently developing the visual artist program with Brownie. Photographers to exhibit in the first year are Chinese, New York-based Fan Haoran, Jiaxi & Zhe and the Welsh Daniel Alford. The first visiting chef is Joel Bennetts from Sydney, Australia. Tuija Seipell.